Get in line

Ohio's mental-health parity law takes effect Sept. 30, giving Ohioans the same co-pays and deductibles for mental-health care that they have for other health care.

Ohio's mental-health parity law takes effect Sept. 30, giving Ohioans the same co-pays and deductibles for mental-health care that they have for other health care.

That will be a huge help to many people who are suffering from mental illness. But such a law makes a difference only if the patient can get the necessary treatment.

Help can be hard to find.

A story in The Dispatch Aug. 18 told of a record number of students at Ohio State University seeking psychiatric counseling during the past academic year. When more people who need help are seeking it, that's a sign that mental illnesses are losing their stigma, but the flood of patients is causing a severe backlog of cases. Many students wait weeks before they can see a counselor.

Studies show similar problems at universities nationwide.

And students are not the only ones having to deal with delays in getting treatment. The Columbus area also has a shortage of psychiatric beds and a backlog in outpatient clinics. The nation is in the midst of a shortage of psychiatrists, especially those who treat young people.

Part of the reason is that child psychiatry requires an extra two years of training on top of the standard four years of medical school and three years of general psychiatry. Some experts have proposed shortening the program or allowing students to work with children earlier in their training.

Reimbursements also are a problem. Child psychiatrists are reimbursed at the same rate as those who treat adults, even though they often spend extra time interviewing parents, teachers and others involved in children's lives.

The reimbursements tend to encourage shorter, medication-management visits, rather than longer psychotherapy visits, which can be equally beneficial.

College administrators have been urged to boost access to mental-health services in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech in April. And many of the military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder. About a third of veterans seek counseling within the first year home.

The Department of Veterans Affairs medical system was ill-prepared for the influx of wounded soldiers from the Iraq war, and it's the same story for those who have suffered mental injuries. The VA has a backlog, too, and some private therapists are hesitant to treat veterans because military insurance reimburses so poorly for mental-health treatment.

With the stigma falling away and demand rising, the shortages of care are likely to get worse.